Design Studio Blog

Menu

CLB analogue watch reveals colourful ring.

Sam says: Analog watches might be traditional, but they can look so cool. I liked what I did with an earlier design called Cypher. I continued playing around with circle based shapes for an analog watch. The result is Cypher’s Little Brother.

The watch is almost completely made of matte black steel. The hour hand is a big half circle and the one end in clockwise direction indicates the hour. The minute hand is narrower and works similar. But it is below the hour hand, so it’s mostly not seen completely. I like this interlocking – makes the watch look more complex. 50% of the time, the minute indicator is covered by the hour hand. In that case, just look at the free end of the minute hand and add 30 minutes. Little triangles on the hour and minute hand as well as some indicators at the dial bottom are a little help.

Second hands are fun, because they make the watch look busy. I made a colored ring that’s moving like a second hand but doesn’t actually tell the seconds. It appears as a size and color changing circle segment and gives the black watch a nice colorful accent.

In order to place the watch hands in the opposite order than normal but to use a traditional mechanism, this has been turned upside down. You change the battery at the top of the case! There is this screw-cap with a coin gap that makes the watch seem to be a little reactor or something else worth keeping locked.

The watch looks mechanical and futuristic, diversified but also strict and sober. I think fans of science (fiction or fact) and arts (minimalistic and geometrical) would like it.

Post navigation

43 thoughts on “CLB analogue watch reveals colourful ring.”

One word…..Wowowow! This is fricken awesome! I was a big fan of the original Cypher (still am) and wondered if it could be bettered. I think this is definately a match for it but for different reasons. I love the technical look and the battery opening at the top really does add to the mystery of whats inside! I would buy this! 5stars/Yes
Best of luck with this one! 😀

First of all thank you for the comments! I appreciate any critics of you and I’m glad you though a bit deeper into the concept.

I planned it basically like the Cypher – an analog watch movement with three transparent (and cleverly made invisible) discs with these geometric shapes attached. Here it is a traditional mechanism which is flipped upside down so the “seconds” are on the bottom and the hours are on the top.

In both concepts, it’s tricky but the result is worth the effort I believe.

I agree with everything said here…I have a bit of trouble reading it in this format because of the fact that I would only sometimes have to add the extra half hour…It can get confusing…
Changing colors is an awesome idea…making the overall look even more appealing.
(I think I liked the original Cypher even better, but they’re both great!)

There is actually a hierarchy of watch hands and ~widths and I like the interlocking situations, that aren’t so easy to comprehend at first glance. But maybe I thought a step too unconventional 🙂 The overall appearance wont suffer from a slightly different layout so please stay tuned!

Heather, it’s not a complicated calculation. If one is used to analog watches, it’s like reading a sentence. One doesn’t read it letter by letter but in a more fluent way. But still, it could be more obvious 🙂 Oh yeah, I expected comparisons with the bigger brother. I’m glad you like the family (so far). Thank you very much for your comment!

If the relocation of the minute arm on top of the hours doesnt work you could just cut windows into the hour arm so you can see the minute arm through it. This would add to the detailed technical look.

Interesting, thanks for telling. If I ideally assume, there are different hand orders possible, then then minutes can be on top of the hours (actually below, if we remember, this is an upside-down mechanism) Cutting in windows is an option. I thought about, letting the hour hand be two narrower curves instead of one thick covering one. For both variants I must say, I like the big flat and smooth area on top and letting the watch get more complicated toward the bottom. Will try something anyway soon 🙂

Very nice design Sam! 5 stars and Yes! I agree with Heather though about it possibly being confusing sometimes. The ‘hands’ remind me of a train going through a tunnel (Time Tunnel?). 🙂 I like the idea of the battery opening being on the top and forming part of the design. 😉 Good luck with it!

Thank you for your comment and vote Lloyd! Yes, the tunneling was an initial idea – letting there be overlappings but keeping the readability. I agree, it’s a bit tricky but it’s a small hurdle. I liked the telescopy behavior of minute hand and hour hand from the start.

Sam, the man who goes from strength to strength, apparently…=)
This really appeals to me, both the black steel and the colour works, especially together. My only gripe is the readability (when to add 30 mins), and even that is fairly minor. Gives me ideas about how to tweak my latest submission (Nonius), in fact… So thanks, and good luck! =)

The readability seems to be the tough part here. But imagine, this actually little hurdle destroys all hopes of an untrained person to read the time. Once he/she knows, it’s a piece of pie.

Oh I think pure metal with engraved lines or the style of your Scaled Watch Design Concept would be great for the nonius. Hmmmm the black up there would look yummy too 😀 But that’s indeed tweaking. The idea of Nonius is told and I like it.

Hey Sam, Really cool stylish looking watch. I’m diggin’ the matt black finish with the bright colour stripe, looks like the offspring of a DSLR camera and a rainbow lol. Like the overlap, makes it harder to read, but thats good for me. Also like the textures of the indicator lines. All together very very much like the look of it, maybe similar to a dslr it can be hard to keep clean? i think a traditional perminent clear glass cover would compromise the look, why i think it might suit a dslr stlye lens cover when ur not using? i think i have dslr on the brain today! lol

Good one Keiron, thank you!! Ok let me start with the glass. There is a glass on top. It can’t be seen so good cause there is nothing spectacular reflected by it. Actullay cool, so you see more from the inside. If you look at the time example images, the white specular light on the lower left of the battery cap, that belongs to the glass. Hehehe q.e.d., everything clean. I really like the dslr similarity. You are right, the mechanical appearance is similar.

Thanks for your clarification sam, obviously it would become less feasable as a day to day watch, (i would imagine difficulties making the watch waterproof or dust resistant) but personally i take a lot of enjoyment in cleaning such beautiful products, camera/keyboard/phone etc I’m not quite OCD but maybe not quite normal? lol.

Great concept, looks quite different from everything else. I’d like to see the color circle have a glossy surface, to contrast even more with the (mostly) matte black case. My only concern is the coin slot on the top. If I use this, it will quickly get scratched — which is okay if the slot is on the back, but not if it’s on the front.

Thank you for your comment Logan! You mention good points there. The glossiness… I wanted to keep the colors as pure as possible, so I planned this ring with less specular highlights as possible. But I like the idea of the contrast in general. The scratches… Two hearts beat in my chest concerning this. I own a 12-5-9 L. It’s already scratchy and I like that alot. It’s a massive metal block and the scratches show it’s age. On the other hand, scratches can be avoided, if the cap is turnable by thumbnail and a scratch-free material in the first place. It mustn’t be screwed in too tightly then. I think a 360° rotation with a little snap-in-hurdle (term?) at the end would be safe enough.

If the materials can be chosen to avoid scratches, then there’s no problem. Maybe, the watch should come with its own special “coin.” I think scratches are more of a problem on a watch with a surface finish (like IP black) than on a solid-color/metal watch like 12-5-9 L, since removing surface material will show a different color underneath. The new Nokia phones are made from material colored throughout to avoid just this problem.

About the glossiness, you may be right about the color purity being more important. I don’t know, but, if I had my choice to look at prototypes, I’d want to see both.

Anyway, it’s a great design. I just mention these points in case it helps with the move to production 🙂

The special coin is an iteresting idea. Maybe a part of the clasp can be removed to be used as opener…

I’m hoping such blackness can be done solidly. I really don’t like coated surfaces, especially plastic ones, that want to fake metal. Once scratch and it’s ugly. Maybe that’s why I like scratches on my 12-5-9 L, because it’s a proof of solidity.

I just produce a more glossy color ring, but it looks the same. The material difference can’t be seen because the enviromnent isn’t that much detailed. But the point is noted and can be recalled anytime 😀

Oh yes Logan, anything that goes through your head, tell me. It’s all welcome cause it can only lead to improvement!

I gave the “seconds” ring different materials, just to see how they look. And I changed the width of the hour and minute circle segments in favor of readability. Worth a look! Thank you for all your input so far!